


Real World

by JCapasso



Series: The Barn [2]
Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:46:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 19,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27973259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JCapasso/pseuds/JCapasso
Summary: After finally leaving the barn they find that things were worse than they imagined in Haven and they have a lot of work ahead of them.
Relationships: Duke Crocker/Audrey Parker
Series: The Barn [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2048234
Comments: 10
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

Duke and Audrey appeared in a thick forest and stumbled a bit. Going from a boat to solid ground without moving like that didn’t make for the steadiest of landings. “Where are we?” Audrey asked worriedly looking around. 

“Well unless something /else/ went wrong, we should be near the Gull. I guess he didn’t want to risk dropping us in the middle of a crowd,” Duke told her as he looked around. “Give me a second to get my bearings and figure out where we are.” He could see the sun so he could tell it was either a little after noon or a little before noon, but without a compass he couldn’t be sure which and the trees were too thick for him to find any of the larger landmarks like mountains or the lighthouse. He started looking for smaller landmarks instead and finally got it. “Right…we need to go that way,” he pointed. 

“You’re sure?” Audrey asked. 

“I know that tree,” he told her, gesturing to the twisted gnarled trunk to their left. “Which means…” he looked back up to the sky. “It’s a little before noon. Good. That gives us plenty of time to get things figured out before tonight. Come on.”

They headed in the direction Duke indicated and it was only a minute before they broke through the treeline to see the Gull and Duke furrowed his brow in confusion for a second before sighing. “I guess they did sell off our stuff. Otherwise, the Gull would be closed down.”

“Well look. Your boat is still here. And your truck,” Audrey said confused. Unless someone bought his entire estate lock stock and barrel that didn’t make any sense. “My car is gone though.”

“We should go find Vince and Dave. They’ll know what’s going on and where we should start,” Duke suggested. 

“Well unless you want to walk all the way to town or risk getting arrested for stealing your own truck I think we should check inside first. See if whoever is running the place can tell us anything or at least let us use the truck for a while,” Audrey counter suggested. 

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” Duke admitted. Once he got in the door he was a little surprised that no one had changed the décor and was still looking around when he heard his name called in shock. He spun around and his jaw dropped. “Wade?” he asked incredulously, making Audrey gasp. Duke had told her a lot about his estranged brother over the years. 

Wade’s face went from looking like he’d seen a ghost to pure joy as he said, “You’re alive,” and grabbed Duke in a crushing hug which Duke tentatively returned. 

“Yeah. I’m alive…what are you doing here?” Duke asked as he pulled back. 

“You died…supposedly…without a will…/or/ a body…makes it complicated for the next of kin let me tell you,” Wade told him. 

“So sorry I didn’t /plan/ my unexpected death,” Duke rolled his eyes as they walked over to the bar making Audrey snicker. 

Wade finally noticed the woman next to his brother. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“This is my wife, Audrey,” Duke told him. 

“Wife?” Wade asked with wide eyes. “The same Audrey that supposedly died in the same accident that Duke did?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.

“That’s me,” she shrugged as she reached out a hand to shake. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too,” Wade said with a welcoming smile. “Now I didn’t exactly believe that Duke was dead, but showing up with a wife was definitely unexpected.”

Duke and Audrey laughed as Wade went to pour them all drinks. “You didn’t believe I was dead?” Duke had to ask. 

“Please,” Wade rolled his eyes. “I may not know much about the details of your business, but I know enough to know that disappearing for a few months could be for a lot of reasons. I wasn’t believing anything without a body.”

“That’s probably smart,” Audrey chuckled. “You don’t happen to know what was done with my stuff when they thought I was dead do you?”

“I don’t. Sorry. All I know is that some old guys came in and boxed everything up and took it out of the upstairs apartment. Tried to buy the estate off me too, but I wasn’t about to sell until I was sure you weren’t coming back.”

“That would be Vince and Dave,” Duke sighed. “I guess we need to talk to them next.”

“Here’s the keys to your truck,” Wade tossed them over. “We can figure everything else out later.” 

“You can stay and catch up with your brother while I deal with Vince and Dave,” Audrey offered. 

“No, I have more than a few questions for them too. Plus we need to find Nate.” 

“Okay, yeah,” she nodded, seeing his point. “We’ll be back later though,” she told Wade. 

Duke and Audrey’s first stop was the Haven Herald. “Be right with you,” Dave said from his seat with his back to the door, not noticing who came in. 

About that time Vince came from the back, looking intently at an old paper before he glanced up and gasped. “Audrey…” he breathed out. “And Duke.” 

“What? Audrey?!” Dave asked spinning around. 

Audrey grinned and grabbed Dave in a hug first since he was closest and then Vince. Not seeing another human being other than Duke and James for six years made her a little more affectionate than usual. “It’s me,” she told them. 

“I hope you’ll forgive me for skipping the hugs,” Duke joked. 

“What…How…how is this possible? The barn was…”

“Heavily damaged,” Duke cut Dave off with the explanation. “We were stuck there on emergency power for a long time before enough systems were up to bring us back.” 

“So the barn is fixed? Is it still an option?” Vince asked hopefully. 

“It’s not fixed yet, but it will be. The estimate was about four years give or take and then it’ll be back for me and we’ll be right back on schedule,” Audrey assured them. 

“Four years,” Vince said wearily plopping down in his chair. 

“That bad?” Audrey asked worriedly. 

“Worse,” Dave sighed. “The meteors alone did a lot of damage, but the troubles are getting worse. More and more people are activating them and they’re getting stronger than ever before.” 

“I’m so sorry,” Audrey said sadly. “We’ll do whatever we can to help keep things under control until the barn comes back.”

“/We/?” Vince asked, eyeing Duke skeptically. 

“Yes, /we/,” Duke said reaching out to put his hand on Audrey’s shoulder in a show of support. 

Dave gasped. “Is that…” looking straight at Duke’s wedding ring. 

“Sure is,” Audrey smiled brightly leaning back against her husband. “We were married in the simulated world inside the barn.”

“I thought it was on emergency power,” Vince said suspiciously. 

“It was. Which was why time moved much slower and the simulation was missing a lot of things and could only cover a small area at a time, but it was enough to keep us busy during the six years we were there.” 

“Apparently the basic simulation was set up on emergency power so that any passengers that got stranded would still have access to food and water and be able to live somewhat comfortably,” Duke explained. 

“That makes sense,” Dave agreed. “They wouldn’t want to risk Audrey dying after all.” 

“So to sum up, you two spent six years in a simulated world inside the barn where you got married?” Vince asked, getting two nods in return. “Great so now we have to worry about Duke being the one to kill the barn next time,” he muttered. 

“No. You don’t,” Duke said firmly. “Do I want to lose her? No. Not at all. I hate the fact that she has to go, but it is her choice and I will /never/ take that away from her.” 

“And…will that still be your choice?” Vince asked Audrey hopefully. 

“Yes. It will. This town /needs/ the troubles to end and I won’t…/can’t/ put my life ahead of the entire town.”

“And I would never ask her to,” Duke chimed in. “No matter how much I hate it.” 

“Still…maybe it would be best if you didn’t go along when the barn comes back…” Dave suggested, fully sold on the idea of letting Audrey go to save the town after all the destruction of the last six months. 

“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen,” Duke scoffed. “There is no way in hell that I won’t be there to say goodbye.” 

“Well, we’ll worry about that when the time comes,” Vince waved the subject off. 

Since that was settled, Audrey got to the main purpose of their visit. “Wade said that you two cleaned out my stuff?” 

“Oh my,” Dave said with a wince as he plopped back down in his chair. 

“Oh my is right,” Vince agreed before explaining. “You see, we have a system for when the barn comes. All of your stuff was either sold or donated to charity and your money was folded back into the town budgets where you were paid from. I’m sure we still have the statements around here so we can replace the money including what we got from selling things, but…”

“That’s all fine,” Audrey assured them. “In fact, just keep it. Unless you mind?” she looked up at Duke. It would be rather pointless to replace everything just to redo it all in a few years. 

“Not at all. What’s mine is yours,” Duke chuckled. 

“I mean, it would have been nice if something was left, but if it’s all gone already there’s not much point worrying about it,” Audrey told them. 

“We do have one box that we kept,” Dave told her. “Pictures and keepsakes and such. To remember you by. You can have that back.”

“I would appreciate that,” she smiled. 

“I’ll go get it,” Vince shuffled into the back where all the boxes for her different personalities were kept and quickly found the one labeled Audrey and brought it back out to her. Duke took it from him and went to put it in the truck. 

“Thank you guys,” she told them. “I guess we should go find Nathan now.”

“You can’t do that,” Vince called before she could leave.


	2. Chapter 2

“Why not?” she asked suspiciously. 

“Nathan isn’t…here anymore,” Dave told her nervously. 

“You better not be telling us that he’s dead,” Duke stopped in the doorway on his way back in and leaned against it with his arms crossed. 

“No, no, no,” Dave shook his head. 

“Not for lack of trying on the guard’s part,” Vince muttered.

“He was just run out of town,” Dave told them. 

“Excuse me?” Audrey asked. 

“You’re the /leader/ of the guard, Vince. You just let that happen?” Duke asked incredulously. 

“Do you have any idea how many people those meteors killed?” Vince said harshly. “How many people have died of the troubles that were /supposed/ to be gone?”

“Okay, you listen to me,” Audrey puffed up angrily. “Yes, Nathan screwed up. I’m mad at him too. But he’s still /Nathan/. He’s still our friend. He’s still the one that spent so long protecting this town.”

“Until he nearly destroyed it,” Vince countered. 

“And if you expect me to stay here and help a town that thinks it’s okay to take the law into their own hands and execute people whenever they want, then you don’t know me at all.”

“You would abandon us?” Dave asked fearfully. 

“I would still go with the barn when it comes back and take the troubles away,” Audrey told them. “But if you want my help to deal with them in the meantime, then I need Nathan’s help too. So you can either get this crap under control or we walk,” she looked back at Duke who just nodded in solidarity. 

“People aren’t going to like it,” Vince said wearily. 

“I don’t care if they like it. They can be mad at him all they want. I’d be hypocrite if I said otherwise, but I won’t work in a town that allows violence and murder to roam free. Period,” she crossed her arms. 

“So they just have to agree not to hurt or kill him?” Vince said thoughtfully, getting a nod from both Audrey and Duke. “Since the barn will be back in play and you’re back to help, I think I can sell that much.” 

“Good. Since that’s settled, you got an idea on where we can start to look for him?” Duke asked. 

“I think I know where he is, but…he’s changed,” Dave said gravely as he went to grab a paper to write the address on and handed it over. 

“Thank you,” Duke said sincerely as he and Audrey headed out and Vince went to make some phone calls and spread the word that Nathan wasn’t to be harmed. 

Nathan was about two hours away and they drove there as quickly as they could. When they saw Nathan standing outside the biker bar taking money for allowing people to hit him, Audrey gasped. Duke just rolled his eyes and grabbed for his wallet, glad that he still had it and that they hadn’t needed to spend any actual cash in the barn. “Wait here,” he told Audrey as he pulled out a twenty. 

Audrey snorted amusedly and shook her head, but did as he asked. She doubted that he would actually hit Nathan anyway. “Have fun,” she couldn’t help but mutter anyway.

Duke walked over, staying out of Nathan’s line of sight as he reached around him to show the money. “I need a break,” Nathan snapped shoving his hand away.

“I would’ve suggested Jamaica,” Duke quipped, wondering if he was going to end up being the one hit. Seeing the pure joy in Nathan’s eyes as he turned around was a surprise as were the hands that went to the front of his shoulders as though making sure he was real. He reached his hands up to Nathan’s shoulders, giving them a squeeze as he said a questioning, “Nathan…” Nathan was clearly beyond words and in the mood to shock Duke because all he did was laugh happily and pull Duke into a crushing hug, burying his face in Duke’s neck. Duke chuckled and hugged him back just as tightly. Despite everything that had happened, he had missed his friend. He still couldn’t resist teasing him though as he said, “You smell. Bad.” Not that it made either of them loosen their grips, even a little bit.

“I know,” Nathan finally said as he managed to let go. At least somewhat. He stepped back, but both of them kept contact with each other. “I thought you were dead.”

“I had other plans,” Duke joked.

Nathan finally broke himself away from Duke with a hopeful, “Audrey…” as he looked around and quickly spotted her standing in front of Duke’s truck. “Audrey!” he called rushing over and grabbing her in a hug too, lifting her off the ground and spinning her around. “How did you make it out? What happened?” he asked pulling back enough to look at her, brushing her hair and resting a hand on her cheek. 

“It’s kind of a long story,” Audrey said, shifting uncomfortably at his attention and noticing Duke do the same. 

“We can talk about it on the way back to town,” Duke clapped a hand on Nathan’s shoulder to get his attention off Audrey for a minute. 

“I can’t go back…the guard…”

“Is handled,” Audrey told him. “So, go get your stuff and let’s go.”

“Yeah okay. I should probably get cleaned up and changed too,” Nathan admitted. 

“I’ll pack up your stuff while you do that to save time,” Duke offered. 

“Then in the interest of saving time, I can go get the truck filled up with gas and get some snacks,” Audrey suggested snatching the keys out of the air as Duke tossed them to her. 

Once they got to Nathan’s room, he made for the shower while Duke started grabbing things and tossing them in the bags, trying to figure out the best way to break the news of the marriage to Nathan. He’d been planning to just be all blunt, but Nathan was clearly more damaged than they’d expected. He hadn’t come to any kind of decision by the time Nathan came out in fresh clothes and shoved his dirty clothes into the bag and they headed outside to get the stuff from the saddlebags of the unregistered bike Nathan had been using and Duke decided to get his story first. “So what the hell happened here while we were gone?” 

“After you went into the barn it vanished, like it was never there. I made it back into town just as the last of the meteors were coming down. It was chaos.”

“You shooting Howard almost killed the barn,” Duke told him using the opening. “It barely got away at all much less taking the meteors and the troubles with it.” 

Nathan wasn’t done yet though. “When the guard found out what I did, they tried to kill me. Part of me wanted to let them.” Knowing that he had likely been responsible for their deaths…the only reason he hadn’t gone through with it was because dying was too easy. He deserved to suffer. “I was trying to save Audrey. Instead, I thought I killed her. I thought I killed you. Killed James.”

Duke crossed his arms with a derisive snort. “So what? That’s your excuse for having a six-month long pity party? Letting people beat the crap out of you?” He knew that if he showed his actual worry that Nathan would shut down. He’d been there before. Wanting to punish himself. And he needed Nathan to see how stupid it was before things went too far for him to come back from.

“I needed money. Couldn’t get a real job. Had to stay off the radar. The guard…if they found me…I’d have been dead,” he tried to explain. It wasn’t about a pity party. Okay, it wasn’t /only/ about a pity party.

“Sure,” Duke said skeptically. “And this was the only way you could think of.” When he noticed Audrey pulling back up he reached for Nathan’s bag. “I got it.” 

“Wait…what’s that?” Nathan asked reaching out to grab Duke’s wrist as he caught sight of the ring. 

“You guys ready?” Audrey asked as she walked over. 

Nathan’s eyes immediately went from Duke’s ring to Audrey’s left hand and he let go of Duke like he’d been scalded. “You…you and her…you’re…”

“Listen…Nate…It was only six months for you, but for us…it’s been six /years/,” Duke tried to explain just in time to get a right cross that nearly knocked him to the ground. 

Audrey jumped between them and put a hand on Nathan’s chest pushing him back. “That is /enough/,” she snapped. 

“You and me…we were…” Nathan looked at her with a look of deep betrayal. 

“We were nothing, Nathan,” Audrey snapped. She might have been more gentle if not for the shiner her husband would be sporting soon. “I kissed you before we left because I wanted to give you that happy memory to hold onto once I was gone. That was it.” 

“But I thought…” 

“I love Duke, Nathan. I’ve always loved Duke. If not for some misunderstandings between us we would have been together long before the barn came around,” Audrey told him a little more gently now that she saw that Nathan wasn’t going to lose it at Duke again. 

Nathan took a few deep breaths as he willed back his tears before opening his eyes again and nodding curtly. “I guess I should have expected it. You’ve always been close. I just thought…”

“I’m sorry, Nathan,” she said sadly. “I thought I was going to be gone forever and this would never come up again or I wouldn’t have done it.” 

“No, it’s not your fault. It’s…it’s mine,” Nathan admitted. “We should probably go.”

“If you want to ride with us and get the whole story we can put your bike in the back,” Duke offered, already over the sucker punch. 

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Nathan agreed. He desperately wanted to hear that story, even if he didn’t like the ending. And even if the truck would be a little cramped. Instead of sitting up front, he sat in back leaning against the seat behind Audrey with his legs stretched out behind Duke as they pulled out. “So you said something about six years?”


	3. Chapter 3

“Yeah, the barn had to go into power saving mode as it said to survive,” Audrey told him. “Which meant, among other things, time moving slower. It sent us into what it called a waiting room which was basically a simulated world just like this one except without any other people and it could only cover a certain area at a time so we couldn’t get more than twenty miles away from each other.” 

“So…what? You just lived in an empty Haven for six years?” Nathan asked incredulously. “How did you not go out of your minds?”

“Duke taught me how to relax and have fun without needing other people around,” Audrey laughed. 

“And let me tell you that was not easy,” Duke teased, getting hit in the arm for it. 

“And we didn’t stay in Haven the whole time. Only about half the time. We took a few world tours on the boat. He taught me to dive and we checked out shipwrecks and coral reefs and all that kind of stuff and then in between we would stick around Haven and just enjoy being home. Snowball fights and sledding in the winter, swimming and diving in the summer, fishing whenever we felt like it.” 

“When you put it like that it sounds kinda nice,” Nathan admitted. 

“It actually was,” Duke told him. “But then you know I don’t usually like people anyway.” 

“So when did you two get together?” he asked despite not really wanting the answer. 

“About a month after we got there,” Duke told him. 

“We finally sat down and actually talked out all the misunderstandings between us and figured out that we both loved each other,” Audrey added. 

“What kind of misunderstandings?” Nathan asked, needing to understand how all this had happened. How he had lost the race before he’d even begun. 

“Not long after I got here, right before the trouble that aged Duke, we had a date scheduled, but I chickened out. He thought it was because I didn’t care. Then during our trip to Colorado we kissed, but he thought I was too drunk to keep going so he stopped and I thought he just didn’t think of me that way. Those are the big ones,” Audrey told him, understanding his need to understand. 

“So even from when you first got here it was always him,” Nathan realized with a sigh. He knew what ‘chickened out’ meant. Especially from Audrey. 

“Yeah. It was. I’m sorry about that Nathan. I never meant to hurt you. You’ve been a great friend and I hope we can stay that way.” 

“Yeah. Of course,” Nathan said easily. “Even if Audrey /Crocker/ is going to take some getting used to,” he chuckled. 

“Good. I’m glad,” she said relieved. 

“Me too,” Duke added. At least it meant he wasn’t likely to end up sucker-punched again. 

“Yeah, sorry about…you know…” Nathan winced. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Duke waved it off. 

“What about James? Was he there with you?” Does Duke know my son better than I do, he kept himself from asking. 

“Only for the last year,” Audrey told him. “When you almost killed the barn, you almost killed him too. The life-saving properties of the barn that were keeping him alive couldn’t run on the emergency power so the barn had to shunt him into a medical stasis.” 

“I’m sorry,” Nathan said regretfully, tightening in his chest getting worse at the thought of that. Thinking that he might have killed his son had been bad enough, but knowing for sure that he almost had was worse. 

“I really hope you are, Nathan. I hope you understand just how badly you screwed up,” Audrey said wearily. “Because if you even /think/ about pulling that shit again when the barn is fixed and comes back, I’ll throw you to the guard myself.” 

“And I’ll help,” Duke agreed. 

“The barn is coming back then? When?” Nathan asked. 

“It’s gonna take about four years for it to be fixed and then come back for her,” Duke sighed sadly. 

“And you’re really just going to let her go?” Nathan asked. 

“As opposed to what? Sacrificing the entire town?” Duke asked incredulously. “Making her live with the fact that her life cost so many others? You really think that wouldn’t destroy her? Even now, it’s tearing her apart, but you didn’t think of that did you?” 

“I just didn’t want her to go,” Nathan said weakly. 

“Instead you almost killed me, our son, Duke, and the entire town along with us,” Audrey said harshly. 

“I know,” Nathan sighed. “I know I messed up. And I won’t do it again. No matter how hard it is to say goodbye.” When he saw that they accepted that, he got the conversation back on track. “So you spent the last year with James?” 

“Yeah. Right. I’ve got something here…Audrey would you…” Duke motioned for her to take the wheel and she did so with an amused roll of her eyes and Duke reached into the large inner pocket of his jacket that he’d sewed in himself to get the leather-bound journal pulled out. “Here,” he handed it to Nathan.

“What’s this?” Nathan asked curiously. 

“Duke suggested that James write to you about his life. To give you the chance to get to know him that way. And James wants you to do the same back and I’ll take it back to him when I go,” Audrey told him. 

“/Duke/ suggested it?” Nathan asked surprised. 

“I would have wanted something like that if it were me,” Duke shrugged. “He’s a good kid, Nate. You’d be proud of him.” 

“How much does he know about me?” Nathan asked, running his fingers over the journal like it was a priceless treasure. 

“I told him everything I know,” Duke smirked getting a groan from Nathan. “You’re welcome.”

Nathan shook his head ruefully, but still had to say, “Thank you, Duke. Really. It means a lot.” Even if he did tell too much. 

“You would have done the same for me,” Duke told him. 

The rest of the drive was spent telling Nathan stories about James until they got to town and were suddenly stopped by guns pointing in the windows. “I thought you said you had the guard handled,” Nathan whispered nervously as they got out. 

“I thought I did,” Audrey whispered back before turning to Jordan. “You don’t want to do this Jordan?” 

“Wanna bet?” she snapped. 

“Put. The guns. Down,” Vince said harshly as he got out of his car followed by Dave and Dwight who was apparently chief of police now which threw them all for a loop. 

“He can’t get away with what he did,” Jordan said desperately. 

“If you ever want me to take the troubles away again…yeah he can,” Audrey said coldly, stepping between her and Nathan. 

“You can do that? Really?” Jordan asked her. 

“Yeah. I can,” Audrey said seriously. 

“Then what are you waiting for?” she cried in frustration. 

“For the barn to be fixed. When it is, it’ll be back, and I’ll be leaving and taking the troubles with me. Just like always. And this time, /no one/ will interfere.” She gave a long pause for that to sink in before she threw in the coup de gras, which was absolutely a bluff, not that too many people would know that for sure. “But if you insist on doing this…killing someone I care about in cold blood…then you /deserve/ to live with the troubles forever and I’ll just go live a nice long life somewhere far away.” 

All the guns abruptly lowered at her words and Vince stepped forward. “Which is why I /ordered/ you all to stand down. You don’t have to like Nathan, but he is off limits.” 

“Now unless you all want to end up in jail cells, I suggest you disperse,” Dwight added a warning and everyone scattered. 

“Sorry about that,” Vince told them. “Sometimes it takes a while for word to spread and people to calm down.” 

“You wouldn’t really leave us with the troubles forever would you?” Dave asked quietly. 

“Of course not. But they don’t know that,” Audrey told them before turning to Dwight and hugging him. “It’s nice to see you again. Looks like congratulations are in order chief.”

Dwight hugged her back with a smile. “I’m glad you’re back. And not just because of the troubles either.” 

“Speaking of…take cover,” Duke yelled as a tornado came rushing down the street and they all dove behind vehicles, Nathan ending up with Vince and Dave and Duke and Audrey with Dwight. “This thing touches down we’re dead,” Duke yelled over the roar of the storm as it hovered over their heads. 

“Way to state the obvious, darling,” Audrey said sarcastically. 

“Gimme a break. I’m not used to this anymore,” Duke replied with a huff. 

“Can we save the lover’s spat for later?” Nathan called from their cover behind the truck next to them. 

Dwight was about to make a comment about the ‘lover’s spat’ wording but was cut off by a piece of debris and he grabbed both Audrey and Duke’s heads and shoved them down. “Look out!” From the huddle he figured out what Nathan meant when he saw their wedding rings, but there was no time to consider the matter right now. 

Suddenly the tornado disappeared as quickly as it appeared and they all came out of cover. “There been other weird weather events lately?” Audrey asked, flashing back to her first ever case in Haven. 

“Not weather, no, but there have been two other incidents today,” Dwight told them. “Why don’t you come back to the station and I’ll show you what we have?”

Audrey didn’t want to jump to conclusions until she saw all the facts, especially since Marion’s trouble had been under control for so long, she they all headed back to the station, Nathan riding with Dwight this time instead of in the back of Duke’s truck. It wasn’t exactly a long ride, but it was long enough for Nathan to fill Dwight in on the basics. 

Dwight brought them all to the board as he started explaining. “Looks like a bomb went off here,” Nathan said looking at the bookstore pictures. 

“Definitely wasn’t a bomb. There were no particulates found. Witnesses said it was like being caught in a windstorm, but there was no wind outside,” Dwight told them. Duke spotted something and reached through to grab the picture for a closer look. “We found that this afternoon,” Dwight told him. “Lucassi said that the sand got so hot that it turned to glass and the victim was trapped inside. 

“This was here…in Haven?” Duke asked incredulously. 

“You know what it is?” Dwight asked. 

“Yeah it’s called a fulgarite,” Duke told him before showing the picture to Audrey. “You remember these?” 

“Yeah, they were all over the beaches in Mozambique. From lightning right?” 

“Yeah people call them petrified lightning,” he explained to them all. 

“Lightning?” Nathan asked as he figured out the same thing Audrey had. 

“The bolts superheat the sand and turn it to glass,” Audrey nodded. “We need to find Marion Caldwell.” 

“I’ll get an address,” Dwight said moving to the computer. This was why they needed Audrey and even Nathan and Duke. They had a knack for this that no one else could match. One event and a few pictures and they knew exactly where to look.


	4. Chapter 4

They knew they were in the right place when they saw the storm brewing overhead even before they walked into the arctic house. Audrey was the only one immune to the temperatures so she sent the other three to wait outside before they all froze to death. As soon as she noticed Conrad’s body in one of the chairs where she found Marion, she knew what triggered it and it only took her a few minutes to talk Marion into letting go and the room warmed and the storms dissipated. 

When Audrey walked out, arms around Marion comfortingly, Vince and Dave rushed towards her to try and help her while Audrey went back to Nathan, Duke, and Dwight. “I think she’ll be okay now. But we need the coroner here for Conrad. He had a heart attack a couple days ago. That’s what triggered her.” 

“I’ll take care of it,” Dwight promised. “You two are coming back to work right?” he asked Nathan and Audrey. 

“I was planning on it yeah,” Audrey agreed and Nathan nodded too. 

“And I’d be willing to put you on the books as a consultant,” he told Duke since he was clearly sticking close to Audrey. 

“Only if it’s anonymous,” Duke told him. “It’s not like I have time to do much else anymore. Might as well get paid for it.” 

“Give us a few days to get settled back in though? Troubles permitting of course?” Audrey asked hopefully. 

“Yeah. Take your time. I’ll let you know if we get another trouble,” Dwight agreed. 

“Let me grab my bike out of your truck,” Nathan told them, going to do just that. 

“Duke…before you go,” Vince called. 

“What is it?” Duke asked impatiently. 

“You need to get your brother out of town,” Vince warned him. 

“Is that why you tried to buy my estate off him?” Duke asked. 

“We know you’re okay, but the last thing this town needs is another Crocker. If he activates his trouble…” 

“I get it,” Duke cut him off. He didn’t hold out any hope for Wade being able to control it either. Vince was right. Wade needed to go. “I’ll take care of it.” 

When Duke and Audrey got back and learned that Wade was crashing on the boat and already asleep they decided to take the apartment for the night. They’d talk to him tomorrow. The next morning, they got downstairs to find Wade already down there cooking up a big breakfast for three. They were relieved when Wade mentioned that he would be heading back to New York that night and other than that they had a nice breakfast before Audrey headed out shopping, with Duke’s debit card, to get herself some new clothes since all hers were gone. “I guess you’ve been married long enough to know better than to go shopping with the wife,” Wade joked. 

“You could say that,” Duke chuckled. For smaller trips he had no problem going along or if she was looking for something in particular, but for an entire new wardrobe he was taking a hard pass. “Hey, my clothes and all my stuff…did you do anything with them?” 

“No, it’s all the way you left it,” Wade told him. “I’ve been staying in the spare room on the boat when I’m in town.” 

“Okay. That’s cool. Thanks,” Duke said relieved. They were probably pretty musty and could stand to be aired out or even a quick rinse and then he decided to do just that. As much as part of him wanted to stick around and chat with his brother who had proven that despite their estrangement he still cared, he didn’t really know where to begin. They were very different people. “I should probably go take care of them.”

“I’ll help,” Wade offered, not quite ready to let go yet, and Duke shrugged and decided to let him. 

Duke filled the bathtub with water and started tossing his clothes in which were actually /very/ musty. Airing out wouldn’t do any good at all. Once they had been swirled around for a bit he started pulling them out and he and Wade hung them all up on the line outside. “Why don’t you just use the washer and dryer?” Wade asked curiously having found the small washroom downstairs at the Gull. 

“Because they don’t need to actually be /washed/,” Duke told him. “And I prefer my clothes to be sundried whenever possible.” He had only installed the washroom for Audrey when she’d moved upstairs, not wanting her to have to worry about going all the way into town to use the laundromat. 

It was almost time for the Gull to open by the time they were done which was also about the time Audrey got back. Duke went to help her with her bags, and even Wade jumped in, taking them all back to the boat where they planned to live from now on. Until Audrey had to leave anyway. Once it was all unloaded, the three of them had lunch together but it was soon interrupted by a call about a trouble. 

Duke went along to start, but there wasn’t too much for him to do so he was back at the Gull not long after to find Wade drinking pretty heavily. “Hey, you drink too much of that you’re not gonna be able to drive home,” he tried to open with a joke. They both knew that he was already far past that point, but it wasn’t like he couldn’t just leave in the morning instead. He got a bad feeling at the look in Wade’s eyes when he looked at him though. “You’re…not gonna drive home,” Duke said defeatedly. 

Wade responded by sliding a tablet over to him, video all cued up. Duke’s eyes went wide when he hit play and he shifted uncomfortably and Wade knew he got the picture. “Nannycams. Not just for Nannies anymore,” he slurred. 

“Who’s the guy?” Duke asked, not sure what else to say. 

“Contractor. Supposed to be installing a skylight, but I guess he’s waiting…until he’s done screwing my wife,” Wade told him as he poured himself another shot. 

“Did you know Marcy was cheating?” Duke asked sympathetically. He couldn’t imagine how he would feel in Wade’s shoes. 

“Suspected,” Wade sighed. “That’s why I installed the remote access camera.”

“Wade, I’m…I’m so sorry,” Duke said sadly. 

“That’s what I get for spending so much time up here,” Wade huffed. 

“You…you came here to help /me/,” Duke said apologetically. “I’m not gonna forget that,” he vowed. 

“Good. Because…I can’t go back until I lock up my assets and serve her with the papers,” Wade told him. 

“Okay…what about your job?” Duke asked, hoping for a reason to kick him out that wouldn’t make him feel like a /total/ villain right now. 

“I trade high tech stocks. I can…I can do that anywhere,” Wade said wearily as he got up to walk away. 

“Look we…we’ll figure something out,” Duke called after him before adding a quiet, “Somehow,” to himself. Clearly Wade was all done talking for now though so he joined Audrey for dinner. 

Duke spent the rest of the day in and out, helping Audrey where he could, but mostly getting some things handled after the long absence and by the time he and Audrey got back after it was handled, Wade was a completely sloppy drunk, and the Gull was packed with partygoers. “Celebrating founders day?” Duke asked. 

“Founders day,” Wade scoffed, staggering on his feet as he poured a row of shots. “Founder…nailing my contractor,” he yelled the last part, leaning on the bar for support. 

“Yeah, that’s good. Start the healing process,” Duke sighed, taking the beer that Wade handed him. 

“Listen…I’m really glad that I’m here,” Wade said as he leaned across the bar towards Duke. 

“Is that right,” Duke sighed. 

“No, I mean…when I used to come visit you when we were kids you know? But we never really got to know each other, right? Dad always made it a competition, but you won. Okay? I was always my mom’s kid, but Dad loved you. You…you were his.”

“Wade…trust me…you won,” Duke said seriously after running off a couple eavesdroppers. 

“Nononono. We’re gonna…show people what’s what okay? You…and me…the Crocker brothers ride again!” 

“You are /very/ drunk,” Duke said almost amusedly. 

“No, I am serious, okay?” Wade protested. “The lawyer called. Filing for the divorce is gonna take a while, so I'm gonna take you up on your offer and I'm gonna stay in Haven.”

“No, Wade,” Duke said worriedly. “That wasn't really an offer.”

Wade just barreled ahead and called out a toast to the whole bar. “To my little brother, Duke Crocker. He's taken me in, given me a home right here. Next round's on me!” 

Duke sighed heavily as Vince gave him a hard look and he just shrugged. He would handle it. He’d find a way but for now… “Okay, Wade? Wade!” Duke got his attention again from where he’d moved down the bar refilling drinks. “Just…keep the volume down after midnight. There are noise ordinances around here. And…you can stay in the apartment upstairs for now. We’ll talk more tomorrow.” He needed help with this one.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning, he and Audrey had breakfast on the boat and he told her what was going on. “You have to tell him /why/ you need him to leave,” Audrey suggested. 

“No. No way. I’m not putting all that on him. I need to /protect/ him from all this. It’s kinda the whole point.” 

“I know, Duke, but consider it from his point of view,” Audrey tried to reason with him. “You’re his brother and he just spent the last six months thinking you were dead. He wants to reconnect with you and you can’t really blame him after all that. After realizing that any day it could be too late. Then he loses his /wife/? In the worst way possible? And you’re the only person he has left now. There is not a chance in hell you’re getting him out of town without a damn good reason.” 

“Ugh!” Duke threw up his hands, realizing that she was right. “Okay then how do I do this? How do I tell someone that the father he idolizes was a serial killer and that it’s hereditary and that the entire town is plagued by near constant supernatural disasters that are going to turn him into a serial killer too if he doesn’t leave?” 

Audrey reached over and put a hand on his arm. “I know it’ll be hard, but…you don’t really have a choice. Maybe show him the family journal and start there?” Duke nodded wearily and plopped his head down on his arm that was resting on the table. “Do you want me to be there while you tell him? Help you?” 

“No, I got it. If I’m gonna do this, I need to do it alone,” Duke sighed. 

“Okay. If you’re sure,” Audrey agreed. “I’ll head into the station then. Get some work done.”

“You’ll call me if you need me?” Duke asked. 

“I will if you will,” she chuckled, pulling the same from him with a nod. By the time Audrey was showered and dressed and ready for work, Wade was sitting in a lounge chair on the downstairs deck, clearly nursing a massive hangover. Audrey waved when she caught his eye, being nice enough not to call out to him on her way by and Duke slipped into the building. 

When Duke came out a few minutes later, he handed Wade a drink. “Hair of the dog,” he told his brother. 

“How did you know?” Wade asked, taking it gratefully. 

“You’ve been partying it up,” Duke pointed out. 

“You know…I’ve been thinking…you could make a lot of extra bank by keeping this place open after hours,” Wade told him. 

“Alright, lets get one thing straight. This is /my/ bar. /My/ schedule,” Duke said firmly. 

“Well…now that I’m staying here…I was kinda thinking that this was…/our/ bar?” Wade said hesitantly. “I mean…I took care of it for six months.”

“Well, it isn’t.” Duke sighed and decided to try this the easy way one more time. “Look, don’t you have a /job/ back in New York?”

“I thought you said I was welcome here,” Wade said, more than a little hurt by Duke’s tone. “Dad taught /me/ to share. Guess you missed the lesson.”

“You know, Wade, you don’t want any part of what Dad taught me,” Duke said resignedly.

“Yeah, well…at least he came home to you at night. Raised you.”

“If you can call it that,” Duke scoffed. 

“Don’t badmouth a man who’s not here to defend himself,” Wade said with a slightly harsh tone. 

Duke grit his teeth and bit the bullet, reaching into his jacket and pulling out the journal, opening it to the first page that his father wrote and handed it over. “Fine. Here.”

“What is this?” Wade asked before even looking down. 

“That’s Dad’s journal. That he left for me,” Duke told him. “Go ahead and give it a read. It’s rather enlightening. Just make sure when you puke you aim it over the railing.” 

“What do you mean,” Wade asked confused as he looked down and started to read. “I made my first kill today. Looking in the man’s eyes as he died was hard, but I know that I did the right thing. I’m fulfilling some grander purpose…” Wade’s eyes snapped up to Duke’s. “What the hell is this?” 

“This…this is what Dad wants for me. For me to become a serial killer. Just like he was,” Duke told him before reaching over to flip a few pages back. “Just like his father…” Some more flipped pages. “And his father…” Flipping back further. “And his father…” Duke flipped all the way back to the first page. “All the way back to the fifteen hundreds. Maybe further and they just didn’t start recording it until then. Or the previous records were lost. Who knows. But /that/ is the legacy our /father/ left us. Still want in?” 

“No…that’s not…this isn’t…” Wade stammered, flipping back to the first page of his father’s journal. 

“I know you know Dad’s handwriting, Wade. He sent you enough letters growing up. It’s all right there,” Duke told him. Wade slammed the book closed and shoved it at Duke, taking a few deep breaths to keep from vomiting. “I’m sorry, Wade. I didn’t want to do this. I wanted to get you out of here without having to go this far. To save you from all this.”

It was a long moment before Wade managed to speak again and he told Duke, “Okay. So Dad was a killer. That doesn’t mean you have to be…or…are you?” Wade asked, suddenly fearful. 

“No way,” Duke shook his head emphatically. “Not a chance. This legacy does /not/ control me.” 

“Then it doesn’t control me either. I don’t care what the rest of the town thinks,” Wade said determinedly. 

“If only it were that easy,” Duke sighed heavily. 

“What do you mean?” Wade asked confused. 

“Okay, you’ve been here for a few months. You’ve probably heard talk about the troubles?” 

“Of course I have,” Wade snorted amusedly. “Local legends…”

“Truth,” Duke said seriously. “Probably about half the people in this town, if not more, are troubled. They can do things. Supernatural things.” 

“Okay…” Wade said leadingly, knowing that there was more. 

“We’re troubled too,” Duke dropped the bombshell. “Mine is already activated. Has been for a long time, but you…you still have a chance to get out of this.”

“What…trouble…do we have?” Wade asked with narrowed eyes. 

“Whenever I come into contact with troubled blood, I get…like a major high…the best high you’ve ever had in your life…but it comes with a nearly uncontrollable bloodlust. The /need/ to kill troubled people. No matter what…no matter /who/ they are. I’ve almost killed Nathan a couple times. And Dwight.” 

“They’re…troubled?” Wade asked trying to wrap his head around this. It sounded too crazy to be made up, but could he really believe it?

“Yeah. They are. Theirs aren’t really dangerous to other people, but a lot of them are,” Duke told him. 

“That’s what Dad meant by a higher purpose? Killing them to keep them from hurting people?” Wade asked. 

“Sort of. Except for the fact that very few of them actually /want/ to hurt anyone. They can be taught to /control/ their troubles. That’s what Nathan, Audrey, and I do. They don’t usually realize what they’re doing until we find them and tell them. And then we teach them to control it so they don’t hurt people,” Duke tried to get him to understand, not really liking the acceptance he heard in Wade’s voice with that question. “They’re just normal people living their lives until some trauma activates their curse, because that’s what they are is curses. They don’t ask for it. They don’t want it. They just want to be able to live their lives.” 

“But still…if they’re hurting people…” 

“I saw a seven-year-old girl once,” Duke tried again. “Her trouble activated when her parents were in an accident and died. She was an orphan. Hurting, scared, and alone. Her trouble made her hunger for human flesh. She learned to control it by feeding on animals instead. Should that little girl have been killed? Or a nine-year-old girl who had the power to control people’s minds and accidentally killed a few people when they were trying to kidnap her and she panicked? What about the elderly man, a veteran, a war hero, who could zap people through time when he was scared? Should they have been murdered?” 

“No,” Wade shook his head emphatically, getting the point now. “But…what about the ones who intentionally hurt people. Or /can’t/ control it?” 

“Then we do what we need to do. But only when there’s no other choice,” Duke told him. 

“Okay. I can see that. But…I can help,” Wade offered. 

“Believe me, Wade. You don’t want this. If you stay in this town, you /will/ end up activating your trouble…your /curse/…and it is so damn hard to control. I live in constant terror that one day I’m not going to be able to control it anymore. The idea of turning into every other Crocker that fell to this thing…it’s terrifying. You don’t want it,” Duke begged him to understand. He opened the journal again to one of the last few pages. “You read how hesitant he was his first time. Now read towards the end.” 

“The poor girl was only eight years old,” Wade read aloud. “But I freed her from her curse and now she can rest in peace. Her teddy bears will never come to life and scare her again. I need to find someone else now. I will never get enough of this feeling. The pure ecstasy of freeing these people from their burdens is all I live for now…” Wade slammed the book shut and this time he couldn’t hold back the vomit, but was aware enough to get up and rush to the railing and puke over the side into the water. 

Duke picked up the journal from the deck and set it back on the table and waited until Wade was done and staggering back to his chair before he said, “Do you see now? Why you need to leave? To get out before this happens to you?” 

Wade took a few deep breaths and shook his head, cementing himself in his denial. “No, all this proves is that the family has a history of violent delusions and you need my help.” 

Duke threw up his hands in defeat before getting up. “Okay, you need proof? Come on. I’ll show you.”

“Where are we going?” Wade asked curiously as he got up and followed his brother. 

“The police station,” Duke told him. “Get in.”


	6. Chapter 6

They got there to find the entire place deserted, and Duke was more than a little worried, especially when Audrey’s phone was going directly to voicemail. It was better than her not answering though. Direct to voicemail meant that it was off or out of service which could mean a lot of things and not all of them back. “I guess we’re waiting,” Duke huffed, not really wanting to go so far as to jimmy the locks on the filing cabinets in the middle of the police station. 

“Waiting for what?” Wade asked tiredly. 

“For someone with a key to that filing cabinet,” he pointed at the one in the corner as he sat on the edge of Dwight’s desk to wait. 

Wade didn’t have too long to get impatient before a scream echoed through the building and Duke ran straight for the door to see a dead cop on the floor. Wade was a few seconds behind Duke, and had a spare thought about how Duke didn’t even hesitate to run /towards/ the danger, and then he looked over his brother’s shoulder to see the cop too and let out a gasp. “Are we gonna end up blamed for this?” he asked worriedly only to get a look from Duke that he couldn’t quite decipher but might have been part confusion, part disgust, and part incredulity. 

Wade noticed the blood moving on it’s own in a very unnatural way about the same time Duke did, and Duke said, “Get back,” pushing him that way and slamming the door. “We need to block the door,” he looked around frantically for something, hating himself for panicking like this, but that was blood. Troubled blood. Basically his greatest fear. Not to mention if it touched Wade…

“Here,” Wade grabbed a coat from the rack and tossed it to Duke as he tried to wrap his head around what was happening. “What is that thing?” 

“It’s blood,” Duke said worriedly as he packed the coat into the gap at the bottom of the door and then backed them far away from it. He grabbed his phone and called Audrey first but it went straight to voicemail again so he tried Nathan. This one at least rang so there was a better chance of getting an answer sooner and he left a message. “It’s me again, Nathan. Puddle of blood just killed one of your cops so…you know…you may want to get down here.” 

“How does this even make any sense?” Wade asked on the verge of being hysterical. 

“These are the troubles, Wade. They rarely make sense,” Duke turned to him to point out only to notice the blood starting to drip from the light fixture above him. “No!” Duke yelled knocking his brother out of the way, but ended up getting some on him instead. Duke doubled over, trying to scrambled out of the way, to the corner of the room, as far from anyone he could hurt as possible. 

“Duke? Are you okay?” Wade asked trying to go after him. 

“Get away from me!” Duke snarled, looking up at Wade with glowing silver eyes and Wade gasped and stumbled backwards before bolting from the room just as Nathan, Audrey, Dwight, and Jordan dragged in a man in handcuffs. 

“Duke…he…the blood thing…got on him…his eyes…” Wade gasped out. 

“Oh god,” Audrey was the first to react, rushing towards the back office just as Duke stepped out, back to normal. “Are you okay?” she asked worriedly, reaching a hand to his cheek. 

“For now, yeah. It was just a couple drops,” Duke breathed out, leaning into her touch. “Wade, I…”

“It was true,” Wade realized. “All of it.” 

“Yeah. It’s all true. Like I said,” Duke told him still trying to catch his breath after the rush. 

“Your trouble killed it,” Jordan realized first and it ended up starting an argument between Duke and Jordan before Audrey put a stop to it with a glare at Jordan. 

Once they had tried everything else and realized that there was no other way, Duke sighed and knew what he had to do. “It can’t kill me,” he said worriedly. “It tried to, but I just absorbed it.”

“That was only a few drops,” Audrey argued. 

“We don’t know what absorbing that much troubled blood will to do you,” Nathan chimed in. 

“Maybe not, but I do know exactly what that much troubled blood wants to do to you,” Duke told Nathan before looking straight at Audrey and saying a simple, “My choice.” Audrey closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she nodded. She would respect his choice to put his life at risk to save others just like he always respected hers. Duke leaned down for a lingering kiss and whispered, “I love you.” 

“I love you too, Duke,” she whispered back. 

Duke crouched down and put his hand in the blood, pulling all of it inside himself, shaking at the effort until it was all gone. Audrey saw Dwight reaching for Duke, but before she could call out a warning not to touch him it was too late. Dwight put his hand on Duke’s back and asked, “Duke?” to see if he was okay. 

Duke spun almost faster than any of them could see and had Dwight lifted in the air by his throat. “Don’t touch me,” he snarled as Dwight struggled in his grip, no match for Duke’s strength. Wade watched on in horror, unable to take his eyes off his brother’s glowing eyes and he could almost /see/ the bloodlust that Duke mentioned there. 

Audrey stepped over into his line of sight, making sure to keep enough distance not to crowd him. “Duke…sweetheart…this isn’t you. You can fight this,” she said in a calm measured voice and finally he dropped Dwight to the ground and stumbled backwards, falling to the floor and leaning against a pillar, gasping for air due to the effort of holding it back. When Wade went to check on him, Audrey held out her arm. “Stay back. It might not be safe yet.” 

When she saw Duke visibly relax and he looked up with his usual brown eyes she sighed in relief and rushed to his side, Wade moving to the other one. “Let’s make sure Duke got it all,” Nathan suggested, leading everyone else out and giving the three of them some privacy. They clearly had a lot to talk about. 

“Do you see now?” Duke asked Wade desperately, still struggling to breathe. “Why you can’t stay here? Why I don’t want this for you?” 

“Yeah. I see,” Wade nodded. “I just…need some time to think about this. To process. I just…” Wade couldn’t say anything more and got up to head out. 

Audrey was running her hand through Duke’s hair and once Wade was gone he let his head loll onto her shoulder. “I’m sure he’ll leave now that he understands why,” Audrey told him. 

“I hope so,” Duke sighed. “I just can’t live with my brother ending up carrying this burden too. Even knowing about it is bad enough.” 

“Come on. Can you get up? I’ll take you home so you can rest,” she said gently, moving to help him stand and then to the car, and into the boat and to bed before she headed back to the station to continue the research she’d started that morning before the trouble interrupted her. They got this one handled pretty quickly at least. It was barely after lunch. On her way out she peeked into the Gull to see Wade knocking back shots, but didn’t interrupt his processing time. It was a very common reaction to seeing the troubles in action for the first time. 

Duke woke up a few hours later and went looking for Wade, finding him pretty close to drunk again, and couldn’t blame him a bit. He invited his brother back to the boat so they could talk privately without any of the patrons or staff overhearing. “You doing okay?” he asked once they were seated on the deck of the boat. 

“Define okay?” Wade scoffed. 

“Point,” Duke snorted. 

“I just…I wouldn’t even know where to go or…or what to do with myself…I have nothing left, Duke. Do you realize that? You’re all I have and now this…I just…I can’t…”

“Hey, I get it okay. Believe me. I’m pretty sure I spent a good week at the bottom of the bottle when I figured all this out,” Duke told him. “But I’m already in this, Wade. I don’t have a choice in that much anymore, but you do. I /need/ to know that the only member of my family worth anything is safe and free from all this crap.”

“I know. I just…I need some time to think,” Wade sighed. 

“Yeah, okay. Just don’t take too long alright?” Duke asked hopefully, getting a nod in return before Wade got up and left just as Audrey was coming home, carrying a folder under her arm. “What’s that?” he asked worriedly at the look on her face. Audrey gave him a sad smile as she sat next to him and curled up at his side. She really hated having to give him this news and almost wished she hadn’t looked. She took a deep breath to steel herself for it as he ran a comforting hand through her hair. “Hey, whatever it is we’ll handle it, okay?” he assured her. 

“It’s just…James said that you mentioned her a few times. Jean, I mean and I saw the picture you keep. I’ve seen you looking at it sometimes. I wanted to…see if I could find some more pictures for you. Some recent ones…”

“Audrey, what is it?” Duke asked fearfully, feeling an icy hand grip his chest. 

“She’s okay,” Audrey said quickly, realizing what he was thinking. “Just…she’s in foster care now.”

“What? No. She was adopted by a nice family. She’s supposed to be living a happy normal life. This isn’t…”

“There was a car accident. Two months ago. Her adoptive parents died. They didn’t have any other family. I’m so sorry, Duke,” she said sadly.


	7. Chapter 7

“She’s…how old now?” Duke asked. 

“Two,” Audrey told him. “I did find a few recent pictures at least,” she offered, holding out the folder for him. 

He took a deep breath to prepare himself before he opened it and couldn’t help but smile at her laughing face. Too young to really understand the trauma she’d experienced. “She looks like me,” Duke said softly as he traced his fingers over her features. 

“Yeah. She does,” Audrey smiled, leaning her head on his shoulder and looking at them with her. 

“But at least she didn’t get my nose,” he chuckled. 

“Oh shush. Your nose is perfect,” she laughed. 

“For me maybe, but not for a little girl,” he countered amusedly as he flipped to the next picture, taking just as long to take in every detail. There were only five of them though. “Did you find anything else about her?” 

“Not a lot. I know where she is and the contact agency, but not many personal details. For obvious reasons, those are harder to get access to, even for law enforcement,” Audrey told him. 

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Duke nodded trying to reconcile himself with the fact that his daughter was in foster care. The one place he’d worked so hard to avoid for his entire childhood. He knew how the foster system worked and knew that she would never have an easy life there or a happy one. Sure, she might end up getting adopted again, but that was a long shot at her age. Most people wanted to adopt babies, not toddlers in the midst of the terrible twos. Then he lit on an idea and jumped up, almost dumping Audrey off the futon. “Sorry,” he told her absentmindedly. “I need to talk to my brother. Now.” 

Duke was gone before Audrey even registered what he’d said and then it took a minute for it to dawn on her what he was thinking and she grinned. That was perfect. She took a few minutes to consider whether or not she should go with him before deciding that she could be helpful. If nothing else her horror stories of foster care would help Wade with his decision. Wade had already let Duke into the apartment by the time she got up there so she knocked and waited for him to let her in too. “Did I miss anything?” she asked. 

“Just my brother acting weird,” Wade told her, hoping that she would have some explanation for Duke’s behavior. He was too drunk for this.

“Sorry,” Duke chuckled sitting down on the couch next to Audrey, leaving the chair for Wade. “It’s just…I remembered what you said before about not knowing where to go and not having anybody…and since I just found out that my daughter’s adoptive parents died and she’s in foster care now…”

“Wait a second…you have a daughter? And you gave her up?” Wade asked horrified. 

“No, not because I wanted to,” Duke told him. “You don’t really think I would give up my own child if I had any other choice do you?” 

“Then why?” Wade asked confused. No, he may not know his brother as well as he would like, but he knew enough to know better than that which was why this didn’t make sense to him. “Just to keep her away from the troubles?” That wasn’t a good enough reason in his mind. Not at all. 

“Not to keep her away from the troubles, no. Though that was a bonus. It was just…” Duke found himself at a loss to explain and looked to Audrey for help. 

“Jean was born because of a trouble. There was a woman, whenever she slept with someone she would get pregnant and the baby would be born less than two days later. The baby sucked out it’s father’s life force,” she explained, seeing comprehension start to dawn on Wade’s face. “It ended up aging Duke until he almost died from it, but we managed to save him by getting the baby away from him. He can never be near her or it will kill him. He had no choice but to give her up.” 

“What about the mother?” Wade asked. 

“Dead. She killed herself after she realized what she was doing to people,” Audrey said sadly. 

“Okay…so you’re telling me this because…” Wade was starting to form a crazy suspicion. 

“Because you /do/ have someone other than me. You have a niece. Who doesn’t deserve to grow up in foster care,” Duke told him. 

“You can’t mean…you don’t want me to…no, I couldn’t,” Wade shook his head. 

“Did you know that I grew up in foster care?” Audrey asked him getting a head shake. “I can tell you from experience, that little girl will not have an easy or happy life there. I went through a lot of foster homes and the bad ones far outnumbered the good. Neglect was among the better things I experienced, but some went as far as outright abuse. Of /all/ kinds,” she said seriously. Hopefully she wouldn’t end up having to go into details to convince him. 

“But…some were good, so maybe…” Wade grasped for straws. 

“Some were, yeah. But not many. As a cop and former FBI agent, I can give you statistics about children from foster care. Girls in particular. They are almost fifty times more likely to end up involved in drugs and prostitution. Suicide rates are sky high too, both from before and after they get involved in those things. I don’t think any of us want that kind of life for her,” she said gently.

“No, of course not, but…I don’t know anything about kids,” Wade pointed out. 

“You can learn,” Duke told him. “Think about it. You have a job that you can do from anywhere. Including from home. Money won’t be an issue, especially with me chipping in which I fully intend to do.”

“I can pull some strings through the system to speed things up. You’ll need to do a DNA test to prove relation of course, but they’re always eager to put kids with blood family, so there shouldn’t be a problem there,” Audrey told him. 

“And if they ask about her father?” Wade asked, getting more on board with the idea. 

“I died,” Duke told him. “Outside of Haven no one knows otherwise anyway. My death certificate is still on file and I plan to leave it that way. At least for now. You were going through my things and found a picture of her and started digging.” 

“I’ll even make you a copy of the picture from the day she was born so you have that for proof,” Audrey told him. 

“You…really want me to raise your daughter?” Wade asked Duke in awe. 

“There’s no one I’d trust more,” Duke said honestly. “But you’ll have to cut down on the drinking,” he joked. 

“Of course,” Wade said absentmindedly, not even noticing that it was a joke. “And I can tell her all about you.”

“I would very much appreciate that,” Duke said with a soft smile. 

“Should I tell her you’re dead or let her know you’re alive? I mean, just because you can’t see her doesn’t mean you can’t talk to her on the phone or even video chats and keep in touch that way,” Wade asked. 

“I…don’t know,” Duke said hesitantly, looking to Audrey for her opinion. 

“I would have given anything to know my parents growing up. Even if it was from a distance. I wouldn’t tell her why he can’t be there of course. Not until she’s much older. But I think keeping in contact as much as you can would be a good idea,” Audrey told him. 

“Assuming that doesn’t trigger the trouble, then yeah. We’ll have to make sure to test it soon so that she’s too young to remember just in case,” Duke decided. 

“And who knows. Maybe when the troubles disappear in a few years it might make her able to be around you safely and then you can actually visit with her in person. Or Wade could even move back here if he wanted so you could be closer,” Audrey pointed out. 

Duke grinned at the thought, but then sobered as he realized that he had been considering introducing her to Audrey, but that wouldn’t be possible. When the troubles were gone Audrey would be too. He shook off the thought and got back on track. “So what do you say? Will you do it?” 

“Yeah. Okay. Just tell me what I need to do to get this going,” Wade decided. 

“First you’ll need someplace stable to live. They won’t like the fact that you’re going through a divorce, but given the circumstances and the fact that you’re a blood relation it should help,” Audrey told him. “As will all the glowing character references we’ll get you.” 

“I can find a lawyer that will retroactively file a will for me and include a clause about wanting custody of her to go to you if anything happens to her adoptive family,” Duke offered. 

“That’ll help too,” Audrey nodded. “Here’s the number for the agency. Call them tomorrow and give them the story and ask what all they will need for you to take her in.”

“Okay. I’ll do that,” Wade agreed. “I can do this,” he psyched himself up as he finally opened the folder to look at the pictures of her. The fact that his brother would trust him with something like this was a heady thing and he was determined not to let him down.


	8. Chapter 8

The next few days were free of troubles which ended up being a good thing because it meant Duke had some time to visit with one of the less scrupulous lawyers he knew to backdate a will. In addition to the clause about Jean, he also wrote a letter to her, which would also be ready by Wade and the foster care agency, explaining how he didn’t know she existed until after she was already adopted and since her adoptive family seemed like such good people, he thought it was best for everyone if he didn’t contest it. He added the things he would have been expected to if she wasn’t going to get it until she was at least a teenager if not an adult like hoping she had a nice life and wishing he could have gotten to know her and such. He would tell Wade to hold onto it just in case something /did/ happen to him at some point of course. 

Audrey spent those few days working, helping to catch up the backlog at the station, but also making deals to get Wade some glowing personal references. Nathan didn’t need any convincing beyond the fact that Duke’s daughter was in foster care. Neither did Dwight, but that one involved an explanation about the daughter in the first place. Vince and Dave wanted an exclusive from her at some point in return, though Vince was happy to do it simply because it meant getting Wade out of town at least until the troubles were gone. He couldn’t exactly bring the kid to town while Duke was here after all. She also got some from a couple doctors at the med center that she was on good terms with and then a few from just random citizens that she had helped in the past and were glad to do her a favor. She didn’t want to take any chances since she and Duke would both have to be officially hands off to avoid any difficult questions. Between the police chief, lead detective, newspaper owners, doctors, and everyday people, that should be enough though. 

It only took two days to have everything together and in Wade’s hands as he drove cross country to Nebraska after talking with the agency on the phone and making an appointment. It ended up being almost a month before custody was transferred due to the massive red tape, including a DNA test to prove relation and Duke and Wade decided to video chat every Saturday at noon Haven time, troubles permitting. If they couldn’t, Duke would call once he got a chance and thankfully video chatting didn’t trigger any disastrous effects. 

It was only a few days after Wade left that the next trouble cropped up, but it and the next few after it were relatively routine and quickly solved. It was only a few days after Duke’s first video chat with Jean before something major changed. It started like any other trouble, except for the fact that Duke was the one to encounter it and call it in. Audrey was a little surprised to find that he was gone by the time she and Nathan got there, but was quickly filled in on why so their next stop was the docks to talk to Vince and Dave. 

“They’re still drunk as skunks,” Duke told them when they got there, getting an amused snort at the wording from Jack Driscoll who was helping out. “I doubt they’re gonna be much help for at least half an hour.” 

Audrey nodded and shuddered when she peeked inside the chamber. “I really hope I never need to use one of these again.” 

Duke grinned mischievously as he said, “Well /I/ really hope that Vince and Dave don’t react like you did. I don’t really want to see them dancing around naked singing drinking songs.” 

Nathan and Jack both burst into laughter and even Audrey was laughing as she repeatedly smacked a dodging and laughing Duke. “You. Were. Never. Supposed. To. Mention. That. Again.” Each word was punctuated with a smack. 

“Okay…ow…sorry…I won’t…” Duke promised amusedly as he was chased around the dock. 

“They always like that?” Jack asked Nathan. 

“Since they got back from the barn? Usually,” Nathan told him. He had gotten a lot more comfortable with their relationship in the last month which was why once they had stopped playing around and got back he asked Audrey, “You’ve had to use one of these before?” They had told him a lot of stories involving James, but not so many with just the two of them. 

“Yeah, I was freediving and forgot to calculate the breath for my ascent,” she told him. “One of the few times I’ve ever seen Duke actually mad at me.” 

“Hey now. You’re leaving out a /lot/ of that story,” Duke protested with a chuckle. “I was /not/ mad at you for making a mistake. They happen. But you forgot to mention the fact that I was inside cooking dinner at the time and had no idea you were going down at all…alone…for your first ever freedive.” 

“Okay, yeah. That wasn’t too smart,” Jack had to admit. 

“I know,” Audrey confessed. “It was an impulsive…”

“Reckless,” Duke coughed. 

“And /reckless/,” she added with a roll of her eyes. “Thing to do. I just…saw this gorgeous Whale Shark and got the urge to follow it. Then I started running out of air at about a hundred feet down and had to come straight up.”

“And then spend a couple hours in a decompression chamber,” Duke added. “Where…” She cut him off with a playful glare. “Nothing at all interesting happened,” he finished with a smirk. 

“Damn straight,” Audrey muttered, and everyone laughed again. 

Once Vince and Dave came out of the chamber it was back to work though. Jack and Duke worked on shutting it all down and packing it up while Audrey and Nathan questioned Vince and Dave. Learning that it was Jack who was at the center of the incident was more than a little shocking to them all. “But Driscolls have never been troubled,” Vince pointed out. 

“Maybe it came from their mother’s side,” Audrey said, “Or maybe they always have been troubled but it doesn’t manifest until later kinda like Nathan’s is always one of the first, so the troubles have always disappeared before theirs popped up.” 

“But if they’re troubled, then that means /anyone/ could be,” Dave said worriedly. 

“This is definitely getting worse,” Nathan sighed, feeling a fresh wave of guilt wash over him, but he just pushed it away like always. “We need to talk to Jack.” 

Jack and Duke were just as surprised, so much so that it triggered Jack into releasing it again, proving once and for all that they were right. Duke was quick to shove Jack into the chamber and seal him in and Audrey went to the intercom and tried to talk him through calming down and taking control of it. Once he was handled, he suddenly got worried about his brother and they started looking for him, finding him at the center of a current pressure incident. So much so that they couldn’t get close. “We need pressure suits,” Audrey said as she tried to think of a way to get to him. “But there aren’t any in town.”

“I can take care of it,” Duke promised. It would involve borrowing without permission, but he had no problems doing that. “You guys try and keep this as much under control as you can. I’ll be back in an hour and a half,” he said as he jumped in his truck and took off. 

“He does realize that renting that kind of equipment involves permits and red tape right?” Jack asked worriedly. 

Nathan snorted amusedly, “You don’t really think he’s gonna bother with all that do you?” 

“Right,” Jack rolled his eyes. “Forgot who I was talking about for a minute there.” 

When Nathan looked at Audrey expectantly, waiting for her to say something on the matter she just shrugged. “I don’t ask questions I don’t want to know the answer to.” That answered the big question of how a cop and a criminal worked as a couple. 

The next hour and a half was spent with evacuating people out of the ever expanding pressure bubble and keeping perimeters set up and trying to mitigate as much of the damage as possible. It seemed like forever before Duke was skidding back up, this time in a van from Dominion Diving. There were three suits which meant her, Duke, and Nathan were suiting up while Jack worked the board from the van. Audrey had to help Nathan a few times when he had trouble getting in the suit. “You’ve done this before?” Nathan asked curiously as they worked. 

“Lots of times,” she told him. “Duke and I used to deep pressure dive in the red sea…There. You’re all set.” When Nathan’s line busted Duke had to carry him back, leaving Audrey to make her way to Aiden alone, but she talked him through the breathing exercises to calm down and get control which thankfully worked just as well for him as it had for Jack.


	9. Chapter 9

It was a little over a week before the next major disaster when a trouble set off a volcano near the library. Learning that the person who caused it usually just got sand in her shoes when thinking about her trip to Hawaii made them realize that the longer this went on the stronger the troubles were getting. More than one person wondered if they would /make it/ through the next four years, but all they could do was their best and rescue efforts were well underway. Duke was ferrying anyone who didn’t need urgent medical attention out of the area, leaving the rest for the medical rescue teams. Nathan and Audrey spent their time between helping to dig people out and asking questions to help put together a clear picture of what happened. Thankfully most of the damage was from building collapsing thanks to the volcano springing right out of the ground rather than the lava and pyroclastic flow which was minimal. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be /any/ survivors. 

By the time they all got home they were exhausted not that it prevented Duke and Audrey from enjoying themselves in celebration of surviving that mess. It just didn’t last nearly as long as usual before they were passed out. When Audrey woke up the next morning laying on the beach she was more than a little confused. Especially when she took in the rest of the changes around her. The boat and dock missing, the Gull being a bait shop, her car and Duke’s truck missing, and most importantly the fact that she was in her pajamas. She was suddenly rather glad that she and Duke had gotten into the habit of putting something on before they went to sleep due to the frequent middle of the night trouble interruptions. It could have been worse. That thought didn’t help her aching feet though as she walked through all the gravel trying to get to the main road. Clearly this was going to be one of those ‘Haven’ days. 

When she saw the police van…and since when did Haven PD drive vans…she was more than a little relieved. When Duke got out of it, dressed all nice and wearing a badge she couldn’t help but laugh as he walked up and asked, “Ma’am? What are you doing out here?”

“Is this a joke?” she asked through her giggles. Not once did it dawn on her that Duke might not know her. 

“I don’t know. You tell me. You’re the one walking around in your pajamas with no shoes on,” Duke said, fighting his own amusement. Her laugh was more than a little contagious. “You okay? You need some help?”

“Duke, come on,” she laughed.

“You know my name,” he realized suspiciously. He was rather well-known around here, but the way she said it…like she knew him…it put him a bit on edge.

“Yeah. I’m Audrey. Audrey Crocker,” she said with a roll of her eyes, but then noticed the look on his face and figured out that there was something going on. Especially when she didn’t see the normal mischief in his eyes that she did when he was teasing her and when there was no recognition there, even at her name. “You don’t know me,” she said slowly, trying to come to terms with that and figure out where to go from there.

“Crocker?” he asked narrowing his eyes. “We related?” 

“I’m your…wife,” she sighed knowing how it was going to sound to him, but not seeing another way around it now. If only she had realized sooner and kept her mouth shut. 

“Uh-huh. I’m pretty sure I would remember getting married,” Duke said skeptically. 

“Okay, so this is gonna sound really crazy…”

“Yeah, because it’s been so normal so far,” Duke couldn’t help but quip. 

Audrey chuckled at that and shook her head. “Point. But…well…does the phrase ‘it’s a Haven thing’ mean anything to you?” she asked hopefully. Usually that was enough to convince him and wasn’t it crazy that they had a ‘usually’ in these situations. When she saw his blank look she huffled. “Of course it doesn’t. Because why would this be easy,” she muttered. 

“Okay, why don’t we just get you off the road here and we can get you some help,” Duke coaxed gently. He couldn’t just walk away from someone who needed help, delusional or not. 

“Okay, listen…” Audrey had an idea. “Why don’t you just take me down to HPD and we can find Nathan and see if he can’t help shed some light on what’s going on?” Maybe whatever this was only affected Duke. Or just this area and once they got out of it things would be okay. 

“Nathan…”

“Wuornos?” she suggested, and sighed again when he showed no recognition of the name. 

“There is no Wuornos at Haven PD,” Duke told her. 

“Fine, but you know about the troubles right?” Another shake of his head as he reached towards her in an effort to guide her out of the road and she shook her head and took a step back. She had to make him see. Whatever was going on she couldn’t handle it alone. She needed help. She needed /his/ help. “Okay, look…here…” she pulled her rings off and handed them to him. “See the inscription?” 

He looked closely, tilting them so the sun would hit them at the right angle for him to see the ‘Duke + Audrey’ inscribed there that they’d had done not long after they got back to the real world. “Okay, so you had our names inscribed on your rings,” Duke said getting a little nervous. 

“No, /we/ did. We…damnit,” she huffed. “Okay, you have a birthmark on your left hip in the shape of a horseshoe.” She wasn’t sure how many if any of his tattoos or scars would have carried over to this world, but that was likely the same at least. 

“And you know that how?” Duke asked suspiciously. This was straight into potential dangerous stalker territory now. 

“Because where I come from we’re married,” she said impatiently. “Duke…please…I don’t know what kind of trouble caused all this but I have to believe that there’s no way it could completely break the bond between us. Some part of you has to feel connected to me. Some instinct has to be telling you that you can trust me.” 

“I don’t think there’s an instinct in the world strong enough to make anyone believe this crazy story,” Duke snorted, not wanting to admit that she was right about that much. “Now come on. Let’s just get you to the hospital and make sure you didn’t hit your head or something.” 

“Hospital. Yes. Let’s do that,” she said perking up. “And you can have them run a full exam on me and pull DNA.”

“Full exam for what kind of DNA?” Duke asked confused. 

“To prove that you and I have had sex in the last twelve hours,” Audrey told him. She didn’t know of any other way to convince him. 

Duke relaxed a fraction at that. If she was suggesting that it meant that she was delusional, not malicious, which meant it was less likely to turn violent at least. It didn’t exactly make it comfortable, but if he could break the delusion…He decided to make a deal with her. “Okay how about this. I’ll run that DNA test if you’ll stick around for a psych eval and stay put at the hospital until I get the results.” 

“How long will that take?” she asked. 

“Well given the fact that my DNA is in the local database here which is all we’ll need to run, no more than a few hours,” Duke told her. 

“Okay, I can agree to that then,” she nodded. 

“And when the test comes back negative, you have to consent to a seventy-two hour psychiatric hold,” Duke added. 

“But when it comes back positive, you have to believe me and help me,” she countered. Once it was agreed to, she got in the truck without complaint and they headed towards the hospital. “So to save time later, I’ll go ahead and give you the cliff notes version of what’s going on even if you don’t believe me yet,” she told him. 

“Okay, I’m listening,” he said honestly. The more he understood about her delusions the more likely that he could get her the help she needed. 

Audrey spent the next few minutes explaining the troubles in broad strokes, downplaying just how bad things were. She worried that if he knew he wouldn’t be as willing to help her get that world back. Truthfully, if they didn’t have another way to end the troubles eventually she might have been tempted to stay, but she knew better than to get comfortable with any troubles. They had to make a pit stop along the way though for Duke to take a statement over a vandalism issue. He was more than a little insistent on her staying put, but she had no intention of going anywhere anyway. Well, going far at least. She did rush off to greet Vince and Dave, hoping that they had some idea what was going on but found them just as clueless as Duke, even going so far as to say that the troubles didn’t exist and accusing her of being a homeless person. She was more than a little dejected as she just went back and sat in the car. 

Her mood perked up a bit when Duke got back and handed her a pair of shoes and a shirt that he’d gotten from gift shop and she put them on, pulling the shirt over her tank top, and she went back to explaining for the rest of the short drive to the hospital. When they got there, Duke pulled the nurse aside and talked to her privately for a moment and then took a seat to wait for the rape kit while Audrey was led into an exam room. She quickly got a new appreciation for what women went through in this situation as the exam wasn’t exactly comfortable. She tried to wave off the taking of pictures, but they insisted that they needed it, so she just sighed and did as she was asked, blushing as some of the bruises were photographed. A lot of them were from the disaster, but a few were from Duke. They’d been a little…enthusiastic…in their celebration of their survival. From there she was hustled off to the psych eval as the kit was handed over to Duke who took it back to the station.


	10. Chapter 10

It was about four hours later and she was sitting in the waiting room, as promised, when Duke came in, looking a little pale and sat next to her. “So this is what…an alternate reality or something?” he asked. 

“Something like that, yeah,” Audrey nodded. 

“And that thing you said before…about it being a ‘Haven thing’…that was supposed to be some kind of code?” 

“Yeah. It usually works. You’d be surprised how often this sort of thing happens,” she said amusedly. 

“And…you and I were…are…married there.” She nodded. “For how long?” he asked curiously. 

“We’ve been together for over six years. Married for just over one,” she told him. 

“So it took me five years to pop the question,” he chuckled. Now that sounded like him. “Do we…have kids there?” 

Audrey hesitated a bit at that question. They didn’t have any kids together but he had Jean and she had James, but that would open up a whole new can of worms so she just said a simple, “no.” 

Duke shook off his daze and got away from the personal questions and back on task. “Okay, so here’s what I don’t understand. If that world has all those troubles and everything…why go back?” If they’d had kids or something it would be more understandable, but otherwise it didn’t make sense. “Everything is pretty great here.”

“Mostly because this world was created by a trouble. The troubles…they’re curses. In every sense of the word. There’s always a catch. They can’t be trusted,” she told him. 

Duke took a minute to wrap his head around that before he caught the first word. “Mostly?” 

“Well there’s also the fact that I want /my/ Duke back. No offense, you seem great and you’re a lot like him in most ways, but…you’re not him. And my best friend Nathan…he’s completely different from the one I know. My other friends…they don’t even know me and they’re so different. But honestly, if not for the fact that you can’t trust a trouble, and if we didn’t have another way to get rid of them coming, I still might be tempted to stay.” 

“Yeah, I guess I get all that,” Duke nodded. “So…how do we get you home?” 

“First we have to figure out who’s trouble is causing it and why,” she told him. 

“Where do we start?” he asked, not at all familiar with these ‘troubles’. 

“Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary today? Something new or out of place?” she asked. 

“Just the vandalism,” he shrugged. “Today is the first time we’ve ever had a problem with it and three signs have been vandalized today.” 

“Okay, do these signs have anything in common?” 

“Other than everything?” Duke chuckled. “It’s the same sign. And the same person’s face is scratched out on each of them. Do you think maybe it’s him?” 

“I’m not sure,” Audrey said thoughtfully. “Do you happen to have a picture of one of those signs that’s intact? Or the people in the sign?” 

“Yeah, I grabbed a reference picture for the case. My camera’s in the truck,” he told her, getting up and gesturing her to follow him. He scrolled through the photos until he got to it and handed it to her. 

Audrey squinted at it, thinking that she recognized the woman but had to zoom in to be sure. “I know her. That’s Suzy…” her mind went off on a tangent. 

“Suzy Howard, yeah. Married to Josh Howard. They run the real estate company.”

“Except where I come from she was married to someone named Cliff. And she was seriously injured in an explosion yesterday. If she died there then maybe Cliff did this…”

“Okay. It’s a theory,” Duke admitted. “If I had lost my wife and brought about a reality where she still existed only to find out she was married to someone else I would probably be scratching his face out everywhere I could too.”

“Now we just need to figure out how to find him. If he’s in any similar position to mine, no one will know him here.”

“Well, again, putting myself in his shoes…I wouldn’t go far from my wife. At least not for a while anyway,” Duke told her. “I happen to know that they’re hosting an open house this afternoon.” 

“Perfect. Let’s go,” she jumped in the passenger seat. 

Duke rolled his eyes as he got in the driver’s seat and amusedly muttered, “Pushy.” Audrey just laughed as they headed out. “Tell me more about this other me?” he asked curiously to kill time. 

“Well you’ve got the same long hair, but you’re definitely not a cop. You’re kinda on the other side of that particular line,” she laughed. 

“What line?” he asked, unable to believe what she was implying. 

“The law,” she told him. “I’m the cop over there and you’re actually a smuggler. Or as you call it ‘a businessman with not so above-board business’.”

“A smuggler,” Duke said skeptically. “Like running guns and drugs and stuff?” 

“No, nothing like that. You don’t deal with things that could hurt people like that. You specialize in hard to find items and other less harmful things that people want avoiding customs. Probably a lot of it stolen stuff, but I don’t ask those kinds of questions. Of course, since all hell broke loose with the troubles you haven’t had a lot of time to do much other than help keep the town together.” 

“Okay, that’s good. I can live with that much at least.”

“We also live on a boat. The Cape Rouge. An old steel trawler. And you own a bar slash restaurant right on the waterfront that we keep the Rouge docked in front of.”

“I did always want a boat,” Duke smiled as they pulled up at the open house. “Here we are. I’ll go talk to them. You keep your eyes peeled for this ‘Cliff’ guy.” 

Audrey got out and leaned against the back of the SUV, looking around the area and she noticed him about the same time Suzy seemed to and was already walking over by the time Duke turned around. “Hey, Cliff. It’s okay,” she told him as he seemed about to run. 

“You know me?” he asked hopefully as he relaxed. 

Duke hesitated a second before he rushed over before Audrey got to him and grabbed her wrist. “Just…before this all ends…” he leaned down and kissed her softly and when she kissed him back instinctively he deepened the kiss, just for a moment, before pulling back. “I’m sure my other self wouldn’t begrudge me that much,” he said a little sheepishly. 

“No. I’m sure he wouldn’t,” Audrey chuckled, reaching up to brush the lock of hair that always came loose from his tail behind his ear, brushing her hand over his cheek. “And neither do I.” The fact that he had done it at all proved that this trouble hadn’t erased /everything/ that they had. “Goodbye, Duke. And thank you.” 

“Goodbye, Audrey,” he whispered at her back as she closed the rest of the distance between her and Cliff and he reluctantly headed back to the Howards. Even if this world was going to disappear in a few minutes, he still had a job to do. 

“You really know me?” Cliff asked happily as she got to him. 

“Sure I do,” she said as she got to him. “I’m immune to the troubles and I think it’s your trouble that did this.”

“I always thought this it was some dumb family joke but it’s real,” Cliff said with a shake of his head. 

What happened?” she asked gently. 

“Suzy got hurt back in old Haven. Because of the volcano troubles, remember?” Cliff asked.

“Right,” she agreed, waiting for the rest.

“Well she died later that night,” he said sadly. “So I wished for the troubles to go away. I mean, it’s just something you say right? I never thought it would happen, but then…poof. Trouble free Haven.”

“So, wait…you just /wished/ the troubles away?” she asked surprised that it would be that easy.

“Yeah. My family always said there’s a dark side to every wish. They were right, because…she’s alive again, but she doesn’t even know that I exist and now she thinks that I’m some kind of creep,” he babbled heartbrokenly. “I just wanted to see her again.”

“I know,” she said sympathetically. “But you know we can’t stay here right?” 

“But here at least she’s alive again and…it looks like she’s happy…even if it’s without me.”

“I know, and I’m so sorry that she didn’t make it, but…this world…it’s not real. It’s just a fantasy. And as tempting as it is to live in a fantasy sometimes, it’s just not healthy. For any of us,” Audrey told him. 

“I know,” he sighed. “Just…one last look?” he asked, stepping around her so that he could watch her for a moment before he closed his eyes and then Audrey was waking up back home on the boat next to /her/ Duke. 

“Oh thank god,” she breathed out. 

“Wha’sat?” Duke slurred sleepily as he creaked his eyes open to look at her. “What are you wearing?” he asked a little more awake. Since when did Haven have such lame touristy t-shirts at all?

“Sorry sweetheart. Go back to sleep. I’ll explain at a more proper time of morning,” she said apologetically as she laid back down, curling up to his side and they were both quickly back asleep. 

Over breakfast the next morning she told him the whole story, and like she suspected, he wasn’t at all bothered by the kiss. He actually saw it the same way she did. A sign that their love wasn’t so easily erased and was stronger than any trouble. He had more trouble wrapping his head around the idea that he was a cop than anything else.


	11. Chapter 11

Things continued to get worse, but they managed to keep the town held together. Some days were better than others and occasionally they even managed to get a few days without having to deal with some kind of trouble. Nathan and Audrey gave up regular police work pretty quickly and they, along with Duke most of the time, did nothing but respond to the troubles which meant that the rare trouble free days, they took off to relax. The three of them had more than a few fishing trips…always close enough to shore to be in cell phone range of course, and Duke and Audrey went diving whenever they got a chance. They spent quite a bit of time hanging out at the bar. Most of it though, Duke and Audrey spent alone, trying not to think about the deadline looming over them. 

In addition to the massive number of pictures that Wade sent him, Duke kept up his weekly video chats with Jean and Wade who were doing great together and Jean was growing up fast. Audrey kept out of it though. Duke had invited her to join, but knowing that she would be disappearing for good when Jean was about six meant that she didn’t want the little girl to get attached to her and then lose her at such a tender age. As much as Duke wanted to share that part of his life with her, he had to admit that she had a point and he had to do what was best for Jean. If she had been old enough to understand it might have been different, but this way was best. 

Whenever Jean asked why she couldn’t live with her dad or even visit, she was just told that he lived far away where they couldn’t visit and he had to stay there to help people so he couldn’t come see her either. They had decided to wait until she was at least sixteen to tell her the whole story. Like most kids, she made up her own fantasies to fit that, which neither of the men knew until one day during their video chat when all hell broke loose and Duke looked around before turning back to the computer and saying, “Sorry baby. I gotta go. We’ll talk again soon.” What he didn’t realize was that the feed didn’t end until after he’d grabbed his gun, pulled back the slide and shoved it in the back of his pants as he rushed out of frame.

Jean immediately turned to Wade and said in awe, “Daddy really is a secret agent isn’t he?”

Wade just gaped at her for a moment, not sure how to even begin answering that one before whispering conspiratorially, “Just don’t forget the ‘secret’ part.”

“I won’t never tell anybody ever,” she promised and jumped down from the chair to go play in her room. 

It wasn’t long after that incident when the barn returned. So many people had been watching so closely for it as the time approached that everyone knew within minutes. Nathan had happened to be at the Gull at the time, so he rode with Duke and Audrey over to Kick ‘Em Jenny Neck only to find themselves met with a wall of guns. “Sorry, but Duke and Nathan don’t go any further unless they hand over their guns,” Vince said apologetically. 

“And we’ll be escorting you the whole way until the barn is gone,” Jordan added coldly. No way was anyone screwing this up again. No one there would hesitate to shoot if things went sideways. 

Duke just huffed and handed over his gun without complaint. He completely understood their position after all. He didn’t let go though until he looked Vince in the eye and said firmly, “I am trusting you to make sure no one gets trigger happy here.”

“No one will shoot unless the barn or Audrey are threatened,” Vince promised gravely and Duke let go of his gun for the guard member to take. Nathan didn’t even protest that much, knowing that he didn’t have a leg to stand on. The fact that they were letting him be here at all was a miracle and one that he’d argued hard for over the years. It might just be his last chance to ever set eyes on his son. 

Once they walked up they saw Howard and James standing there waiting and Audrey quickly rushed forward and pulled her son into a crushing hug. “Oh I missed you baby,” she told him. 

“Me too mom,” he chuckled as he hugged her back and when she stepped aside he grabbed Duke in a hug too. “I’m glad you came.” 

“Wouldn’t miss it, kid,” Duke said as he hugged him back. 

Finally, it was Nathan’s turn and he stepped forward, journal in his hands, hesitating for a long moment before hugging his son too, glad when it was returned. “Thank you for the journal,” he told him. 

“You’re welcome,” James said as they stepped back, not sure what else to say. The awkward moment was made even more so by the dozen guns surrounding them. “What’s with the cavalry?” he asked his parents. 

“They want to make sure that no one tries to kill the barn again,” Duke was the one to answer. 

“But you won’t right?” James asked worriedly looking at his father. 

“No. I learned my lesson last time,” Nathan assured him. “And I swear, if I had taken a second to think of what would have happened to /you/ I never would have tried last time either.”

“I know. Mom and Duke assured me of that,” James said with an accepting smile. 

“Here. I made a journal for you too,” Nathan handed it to him and James took it happily. “And maybe next time…if I’m still around…you can send another one? Assuming you can make one in the barn? And I’ll send another one back with whoever Audrey is then?” 

“Yeah. I’d like that,” James easily agreed. “Thanks…dad.” 

“No, thank /you/, son,” Nathan beamed, pulling him into another hug. 

While Nathan and James were talking, Howard pulled Duke and Audrey to the side. “We have a bit of a problem.”

“What kind of problem?” Audrey asked worriedly. 

“While the two of you were trapped in the barn during the shutdown, the barn was pulling from both of you to keep the essential systems running as it is designed to do,” Howard started. 

“That’s not that surprising,” Duke said carefully. He’d explained how the barn pulled from Audrey and the prisoner so aside from not being sure if him being from a different world affected things, he had suspected it had been pulling from him too. 

“Yes, well…this has caused the barn to become attuned to you as well,” Howard told him regretfully. “Any attempts to restore the prior programming failed due to the massive amounts of corruption caused by the incident.” 

“And you didn’t have any backups?” Audrey asked incredulously. 

“We had three backups within the barn. They were all corrupted. Backing up the programming offsite is not possible due to the unique functions involved,” Howard explained. 

“So what does this mean?” Duke asked impatiently hoping that he would get to the point. 

“It means that the barn will only be able to work if you both come,” Howard said sadly. It was one thing to sentence Mara to such an existence, even if the personalities she became didn’t deserve it. No part of Duke deserved it. 

Duke let out a heavy breath. “Right. Well. I guess that’s that then.” 

“Duke, I’m sorry…” Audrey said sadly. “You don’t have to…you have a choice too.”

“No, I don’t,” Duke shook his head. “No more than you do. I can’t let all these people suffer and die either.” 

“Duke…thank you,” Vince said sincerely, getting nods of respect from the rest of the guard that were close enough to hear. 

“Gotta do my part right?” Duke huffed with a wry smile. “Just…give me a little time to call my daughter and say goodbye?” 

“Of course,” Howard nodded and the guard parted for Duke to walk by as he pulled out his phone. 

“He was hoping to be able to actually meet her in person once the troubles were gone,” Audrey sighed sadly. At Howard’s curious look she explained, “Her trouble is that she sucks the life from her parents. If he gets within a mile of her he’ll die.” 

“I see. I am sorry it has come to this. We did make every effort to fix this glitch, I assure you.”

“I know. That’s why you’re two weeks late?” she asked. 

“Yes. The rest of the repairs were ahead of schedule, but we didn’t want to give up on resolving this issue until we were positive it couldn’t be done.” 

Duke called Wade on the phone just long enough to ask for a video chat, glad that they were available and he could actually see Jeanie one last time. He hit record as soon as the chat opened and said, “Hey baby. How are you?” 

“I’m good Daddy. It’s not Saturday is it?” she asked confused. 

“No, I just needed to see you and…and tell you…Daddy’s gonna have to go away baby.” 

“You’re always away,” she pointed out. 

“No, I mean even more away. The kind of away that I won’t be able to talk to you anymore for a long time,” Duke told her, tears welling up in his eyes. He could see the worry and questions in his brother’s eyes, but Wade was holding his tongue for the moment. 

“How long of a time?” she asked. 

“More than twenty five years,” he told her. 

“Why?” she asked as her lower lip started trembling and tears started filling her eyes too. 

“You know how we told you that I’m away helping people?” She nodded. “Well I have to keep doing that somewhere else now. If I don’t go then lots and lots of people are going to get hurt and die.” 

“Why can’t somebody else do it? Somebody who’s not a daddy?” she cried and sank into her uncle’s arms. 

Her tears pulled Duke’s from him too. “Because no one else /can/ do it. I swear to you Jeanie if there was /any/ way I could stay, I would. I would /never/ leave you if I didn’t have a choice. Please know that, baby.”

“I’ll miss you, Daddy,” she sobbed. 

“I’ll miss you too, Jeanie. Never forget how much I love you,” he said solemnly. 

“Love you too, Daddy,” she managed to get out before she jumped off Wade’s lap and ran to her room and both men could hear the door slam. 

“What’s going on?” Wade asked now that they were alone. 

“Headset,” Duke told him and then waited until Wade had it on and plugged in. He didn’t want Jeanie to overhear. “The barn is back, but since I was trapped there for so long, it’s connected to me now too, just like Audrey. They tried to fix it and disconnect me, but they couldn’t. If I don’t leave, neither do the troubles.” 

“Oh god,” Wade breathed out. “That’s…I can’t even imagine facing that kind of decision.”

“Just…take care of Jeanie for me, Wade? Please?” 

“Always,” Wade vowed. “And once she’s old enough, I’ll make sure she understands why you had to go. And I’ll keep telling her all about you and I’ll do my best to make sure you have a way to contact her when you get back even if I’m not still around.” 

“Thank you, Wade. I’ll probably be someone completely different though. They’ll probably rewrite my personality like they do Audreys. Just know I can never repay you for this. And for everything you’ve done for her already,” Duke told him. 

“It’s been my pleasure,” Wade said with a smile. “I never thought I would enjoy raising a child, but she has been the light of my life. Thank /you/ for entrusting her to me.” 

“If you wanted, you can come back to Haven now. Take care of the boat and the bar. As long as you promise to leave as soon as the troubles start back up again. Otherwise, I’ll give it all to Nate.” 

“I promise,” Wade assured him. “And I’ll do my best to make sure she does too. I want to show her where and how you lived though. The good parts anyway. Without all the criminal stuff,” Wade joked pulling a laugh from Duke. 

“I’ll miss you too, brother,” Duke told him. 

“Me too,” Wade nodded. “Goodbye, Duke.”

“Bye,” was all Duke could get out before he ended the call. 

By the time he got back, Audrey had already said her goodbyes to Nathan, Vince, and Dave and Nathan and James were just finishing their goodbyes. The only other person he cared about here was Nathan who he pulled into a hug. “Take care, Nate.”

“You too,” Nathan told him, hugging him back tightly. 

Duke turned to Vince mainly, but spoke loudly enough that everyone could hear him. “Wade will be coming back to town with my daughter to raise her here now that the troubles will be gone, but he’s promised to leave as soon as they come back, so make sure you let him know when that is.” 

“We will,” Vince nodded, despite knowing that it would fall to someone else. He was already old and would likely be long dead by the time the troubles came back again. “And he and your daughter will be welcomed with open arms until that day.” 

“Thank you,” Duke said sincerely. “We ready?” he asked Howard, Audrey, and James and they all walked into the barn before it disappeared from this world for the next twenty-seven years.


End file.
